Bluffton Town Council approves annexation of land for new school

Land owned by the Beaufort County School District that will be used to build a new pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school is now part of Bluffton.

Bluffton Town Council voted Wednesday to annex and rezone 52.77 acres on Davis Road north of Bluffton Parkway, east of S.C. 170 and west of Hampton Parkway. Council approved the school district’s request during a joint meeting with the town’s Planning Commission. The commission, which initially heard the request in December, unanimously supported the request and recommended it to council. The rezoning vote was required to allow a school to be built on the site.

The mostly wooded site had been unincorporated and town officials have said annexing it would be logical, because the school will serve mainly Bluffton students, and the area surrounding it is all part of Bluffton. Uniformity of emergency services is another advantage, school district officials said.

“This site is within our comprehensive annexation plan limits, and it accomplishies the filling of that ‘donut hole,’” Mayor Lisa Sulka said. “So we’re slowly connecting the dots.”

The school is one of two that will be built by the district to alleviate overcrowding. The Davis Road school will siphon students from Bluffton and H.E. McCracken middle schools and will enroll 1,200 students with a capacity for 1,400, distirct facilities planning and construction coordinator Robert Oetting said. A new high school in the New Riverside area is also planned and will have a capacity of 1,800 students.

The estimated $23.5 million project is being paid for by a February bond issue. The $42 million high school will be financed by money the district can borrow under state law without holding a referendum.

Oetting said plans are to complete the Davis Road school, which will also include baseball and softball fields and an auxiliary athletic area, in one phase, assuming no budgetary issues arise. An architectural contract for both schools with Hite Associates was approved by the school board in November, and contracting bids are expected to be accepted in March with construction commencing soon after. Both schools are expected to open in August 2015.

Oetting said current plans are for the school to have two entrances — one for buses on the Hampton Parkway side and the other for cars on the Bluffton Parkway side. He also said the district plans to add sidewalks on the parts of the land along those roads it owns and is looking at paving the portion of Davis Road that sits on its property.

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I do not understand why the property had to be annexed into the town. Watch out property owners in the unincorporated areas we are next to be annexed to pay for this school. The only reason we have to build another school is because our schools are becoming inundated with illegals kids. We need to start holding local government accountable for allowing our communities to be a sanctuary for illegal aliens and the crimes they commit, the over crowding of our jails and schools, and the draining of our human resources. Rep Trey Gowdy is introducing this type of legislation this year.

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